BURGLAR'S AMAZING STORY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9160, 6 August 1908, Page 3

BURGLAR'S AMAZING STORY.

A DOUBLE LIFE. An amazing story of a burglar's -double life was told at Leicester Sessions, England, on Saturday, June 13th, when John Frederick Spencer i(twenty-eight), who before the 1 world has bean a model citizen and zealous religious worker, was sen- ■ tended to twelve years' penal servitude for burglary. At one time he was a draper in business on his -own account in the town, fie was a Sunday-school teacher and adult school worker; yet it was shown that he had committed a series of burglaries which, as Detective-Superintend-ent Allen told the Court, had terror is ui Leicester for months, and had ■cost the town many hundreds of pounds, as many as ninety extra <orfi:erj being on plain clothes duty .in one night. Tnese bedroom burglaries, as the detective-superintend-ent dsscribed them, began in August, 1997, but it was not till February of this year that suspicion fell on Spencer. The police had him under observation for tvvu months, and a search warrant was obtained, but fjr certain reasons was not executed. Spencer actually accompanied n -neighbour to the police station to complain of a suspicious-looking character, really a detective, who was lurking near his house. In the •early hours of April 9th he was -caught red-handed in the house of Charles Frederick Stevens, Road, by Detective-Sergeant Briers, who had secreted himself in the liv • ■ing-room. The detective struggled wscn the man for over an hour before he uverpowered him. He had a jemmy and screw-driver on him, and 1 W43 wearing gloves to avoid leav-finger-prints. In his pocket . were two pieces o p poisoned meat, .presumably to administer to dogs. A search of prisoner's house revealed .thi of burglaries at several ■ duces in the borough and county, | vvh le from the garden til 3 detectives j duj up a powerful jemmy. The jury 1 found prisoner guilty ad accessory in the Loughborrugh Road case and gu.liy on the full charje of burglar•i.jusly entering the Snip Inn. Spencer put in a 1m? at itetnent explainin n>AV he wis led into a career of ■crime. He said that last July a foreigner named Philip, who had formerly had a tailor's shop on Tudor Road, met him by appointment at the Midland railway station. At his request he went to Brooksby Hull to .nee what chance there was of breaking into it. It will be remembered thit ther'i was a burglary at Brooksby Hall, when jewellery, etc., valued at £7,000 was stolen. Prisoner said he reported to Pliilio at Birmingham "no good," but Philip came over again and together they "cocked over" and made a' further inspection. Philip said ic .vo.lJ be easy to enter, and later he (Spencer) heard of the burglary He perjonally had no part in it. Afterwards he again isaw Philip, who gave him £5. He said they got the stutf away by train, and that n't m>tor car was used. Prisoner gave a total denial to the suggestion that drugs were used -on sleeping occupants of bedrooms either oy him or his associates, and said he had now done his best to help the police to trace Philip. Mr Mariott, fjr the accused, irnade an eloquent plea to the Court to temper justice with mere;, but tfrijitecSrcler said mercy in such a caie would be out of pla -e. In the interests of the communitj he cjuU not sendee prisoner to lesj than ■twelve years' penal servi r .ur)e.